Does hockey ever use a man-to-man type defensive scheme, similar to basketball?
No, defenses nowadays are so precise that players need to be in a certain position for the systems to work. Going man to man would ruin that effectiveness. Instead, coaches look for matchups. If Eric Lindros is out on the ice, the Devils would want Scott Stevens out there to neutralize the Rangers’ center’s strength. Boston would want Hal Gill out against Jaromir Jagr, or Detroit would use Nicklas Lidstrom against Peter Forsberg. But that doesn’t mean that Stevens, Gill or Lidstrom will go out of position to stay with his man. Up until recently, some teams did assign a “shadow” to watch the other team’s superstar from the moment he stepped on the ice until the moment he got back on the bench. Bryan Watson used to follow Bobby Hull around, yap at him and do his best to get him off his game. Esa Tikkanen was another shadow who combined skill and trash talking. But the most famous example was Steve Kasper against Wayne Gretzky. In his autobiography, Gretzky wrote that at his wedding, whic
